The Long Way Round
by To Kingdom Come
Summary: Yuffie and Vincent are stranded bacause Cloud is impatient. No, it's not random stupidity. At least, I hope it's not.
1. Stranded

_A/N: I wasn't ever planning to write anything like this. But then a plot jumped out and bit me. I had to write it, because it was gnawing on my brain O.o_

_The song that influenced this story is 500 Miles. It's fairly old, yet I love it so. Enjoy the chapter. There's probably going to be lots more. And please review._

_Notes: Mildly AU._

**_--Chapter one: Hitchhikers--_**

'Trudged' is a very good word. It is used often for describing the way people walk when they are despondent or depressed, or just tired.

'Trudging' could describe very well the way Vincent and Yuffie were moving along the dirt road.

Cloud had called them the night before and told them that He, Tifa, Red and Cid had left because they had heard Sephiroth was nearby.

Vincent and Yuffie were trying to catch up, but they weren't doing to well. It had rained all yesterday, and they were now practically _wading_ down the road.

One of Yuffie's shoes had been lost to the squelching mud, and Vincent swore he could hear his steel capped boots rusting.

Earlier that morning Yuffie had started sneezing, and the sneezing had then developed into a full-blown cold.

Cloud had failed to give them good tents, and their flimsy canvas shelters had been rendered useless in the storm last night, forcing them to continue walking through the howling gale.

All in all, they both felt miserable.

Suddenly Vincent was stopped by a small hand tugging on his cloak. "Vinnie! Hey, Vinnie!" He sighed and looked round wearily. "What is it Yuffie?"

She must have a good reason for stopping him, he knew she felt the same way as he did about this walk; head down and keep going until we reach an inn.

"I thought, cars come past here every now and then, right?"

Vincent nodded. She didn't need to ask. Every time they came past they sprayed muddy water onto the two companions and roared on up the road, leaving behind it an even moredepressed Vincent and an even morefurious Yuffie.This was the only real break from the heavy silence they got,along withYuffie's shrieks of outrage and bursts of obscenities and the cars.

"Well, we're gonna hitchhike to the next inn!" She declared, hopefully.

Vincent stared at her. "Yuffie, that wouldn't work."

A small frown of annoyance passed over her face. "How do you know? Have you _tried_? Why are you always so negative? And you know what? I'm…"

On cue, the sound of an engine reached their ears. Vincent held his arm out, thumb out in classic hitchhiker style. He watched as the driver's eyes widened at the sight of his golden metal claw and sped up a little bit.

Yuffie scowled at him. "That's cheating! You didn't have to use that hand!"

"Nevertheless, no one in their right mind would pick up one such as me."

"Vinnie! You're so depressing! Come on, let me try next time a car comes past!"

Vincent shrugged. "As you wish."

A few hundred meters down the road, they stopped again. "I hear a car." Vincent told Yuffie.

"Right! Action stations! Prepare to commence with plan B!"

"Yuffie…"

"Yeah?"

"What is plan B?"

She deflated a little. "I dunno. I was gonna make it up later."

"The car is coming now, Yuffie."

"Ok, ok! I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" She screwed her face up into a mock-expression of concentration. "Ok, I've got it! Vinnie, go disappear in the trees for a few seconds!" She pushed Vincent towards the trees then ran back to the side of the road.

As the car turned round a bend in the road, she jumped up and down and waved.

Vincent watched from the bush as the car slowed down and pulled up just a bit in front of the grinning teenager. The window rolled down, revealing a plump man with a huge gray beard. "Hey little miss, you lost?"

Yuffie nodded. "Yeah! Could you please give my friend and me a lift to wherever? I can pay you."

"Sure, hop in. Where's you friend?"

"Oh, she's over in the bush, it was raining a few seconds ago, see. Vinnie, you can come out!" She turned and waved, to meet Vincent's scowl. She grinned impishly.

He sighed and stepped out into view of the driver and waved with his clawed hand. The driver's eyes widened at the sight of him, just as the previous one's had.

Yuffie turned back to say something, but she was greeted with the sight of a car pulling away and tearing down the road. "Bastard!" she screamed after it. Vincent wasn't sure if she was yelling at the driver for leaving or at him for waving.

"She?" Vincent asked.

A heavy silence fell over the two.

Yuffie eventually said, "…Sorry. People are happier to pick up girls than guys. And you do kinda look like a very tall, creepy girl… Admit it."

The heavy silence didn't disappear.

"Sorry."

Vincent said nothing and continued down the road, not bothering to make sure that Yuffie was following.

"Come on Vinnie! I said I was sorry! I'll think of something else!" She hurried after him, running to keep up with his long strides.

"Yuffie, give up."

"Aww, Vinnie! You're not going to sulk for ages at me are you?"

"…"

"Aww…"

"Yuffie, neither your idea or mine worked. Face it, we're going to have to walk to the next village."

"You give up too easily Vinnie."

Vincent stopped, and Yuffie continued walking, pretending not to notice.

Eventually Vincent started walking again.

Over the next hour, two cars went passed, but Yuffie didn't try to get them to stop. She trudged on trough the mud, and was strangely silent. Vincent began to wonder if he had upset her, which would be rather unfair of her, since he was the one she insulted.

Just before he caved and asked what was wrong, she said, "Vinnie, I bet that if you took that awful cape off, you wouldn't look so scary."

"No."

"Why not?"

"..."

"Vinnie?"

"Don't call me that."

Grinning evilly, Yuffie slowed down to walk beside him. "I'll tell you what, I'll stop calling you Vinnie if you take that cape off. I dunno about you, but I think that if you looked less scary, someone would pick us up, and then we could get to the inn. Think about it, Vinnie, proper food! Warmth! No rain!"

Food, he could do without. The cold? Didn't bother him. But the incessant rain. Driving, pounding rain. It was driving him mad.

He sighed and started unbuckling his heavy cloak. "Yuffie, even without my cloak, there is still my arm to think about."

"Don't you have a giant glove or something? I would have thought of that ages ago!"

"A glove…?"

"Yeah. That could fit over your arm."

"…"

"Fine, just wrap your cloak around your arm. We can pretend you hurt yourself."

"Fine."

Now that Vincent wasn't wearing the heavy red cloak anymore, he looked only mildly less creepy.

Yuffie scowled at him. "You suck."

"What?"

Her eyes narrowed.

Vincent got a foreboding feeling.

Suddenly Yuffie looked a whole lot more scary than she had before. "Vinnie, your hair needs some serious work! How do you manage it! Even Tifa spends ages getting her hair looking good, but you don't even own a brush! Not to mention it looks exactly like you just spent thirty years in a coffin!"

"Yuffie, what are you gonna do?"

She was advancing on him with a kunai.

"Yuffie?"

He backed away, putting his hands up.

"Time for a hair cut, Vinnie!" The young ninja shouted…

oOo

_A/N: Gods, I have no idea what happened here. It was supposed to be a miserable piece in which Vincent isdepressed and Yuffie is annoying... It got out of hand though, and now Vinnie's in for a haircut. I apologize, I really do. Sorry. Please forgive my randomness. Oh yeah, and please review : )_


	2. Aftermath

_**--Chapter Two: The Aftermath--**_

Vincent Valentine never sulked. It was a pointless, childish practice. Right now, however, he was doing a damn good impression of it.

He ran his hands through his hair again. It wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought it would be though. Who would have thought that a teenaged ninja with a kunai could make such a tidy haircut?

He did his sulking impression anyway. Yuffie was sitting on the other side of the road, waist deep in mud, picking hairs off her clothes. Never cut hair on the windy day. It goes everywhere.

She caught him looking at her and grinned. "Come on Vinnie, it's not that bad. Here." She skipped over to him and held the much shined face of her shuriken up to him. The polished metal acted as a mirror. Vincent grabbed it and tilted it so he could see.

Without his headband and cloak, with his hair cropped short, he looked much like he had when he was a Turk. He wasn't entirely happy with that.

"Vinnie, gimme my Shuriken back…"

Vincent let go of the weapon, and folded his arms across his chest.

"I bet we can get someone to pick us up now!" The young ninja chirped happily.

"…"

"C'mon Vinnie, get out of the mud." She put on a squawky old lady voice. "You'll catch your death of cold!"

The tall man sighed and stood up. "Let's keep moving then."

It was another three quarters of an hour before a vehicle came past.

A large tow truck roared towards them, and Yuffie bounded out into the middle of the road.

"Yuffie!" Vincent called, but she stood her ground. "Yuffie! What if the driver doesn't see you?" He strode after her, and grabbed her arm, trying to drag her off the road.

She was stronger that he expected, but still no match for the tall gunman. Protesting all the way, she slid off the mud soaked road.

The truck stopped anyway, and someone inside leaned over and opened the passenger door. "Leviathan, you two look like you just walked through a swamp!"

"In a way, we have." Yuffie grinned and asked hopefully, "Any chance of a lift?"

"Sure, hop in." The young man said. "But if you get mud on the seats, you are so helping me clean it off."

Yuffie shrieked happily and practically bounced in, then waved Vincent up after her. "Hurry up, hurry up! A nice warm meal is waiting! I can almost taste it!"

Vincent slammed the door after him and looked over Yuffie's head at the driver. A cheerful looking man, about twenty, at a guess, with shoulder length blond and brown streaked hair tied back into a ponytail. He was skinny looking with a round face and light brown skin, and was wearing grease stained overalls with a logo on one arm that said 'River and sons: You break it- we move it!'

"So are you River, or one of the sons?" Yuffie asked, just as he was about to ask a similar question.

The young man laughed and shook his head. "Neither. River died a few years back and one of his sons took over for him. I'm River's grandson, my uncle runs the company now."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's ok. I get asked that all the time. The name's Fred River by the way." Fred River suddenly changed gears and sped up, throwing his passengers back against the uncomfortable seats. "By the way, hold on, the roads a bit slippery."

"Thanks for the warning," Yuffie said, just a bit too cheerfully.

oOo

It was over four hours before Fred slammed on the breaks and yelled, "We're here!" cheerfully.

Yuffie woke up with a start, shouting "Battle stations!" Before she realized where she was.

Fred was already out the truck and heading towards the patch of bright light in the darkness that was the Bulwark Inn.

Yuffie climbed over Vincent in her hurry to follow him, and Vincent followed at a more sedate pace. His crimson cloak was still wrapped around his claw arm. The wet fabric was beginning to feel heavy, even to him.

Bulwark Inn was a warm, bright little pace, empty at this time of year, except for a few old trucker types, whom Fred was already talking animatedly too.

Yuffie was at the bar, waiting impatiently for the meal she must have ordered. Vincent sat down heavily beside her and waited for the bar tender to notice him.

oOo

There was a regular, sharp pain in his good arm. He opened his eyes a crack to see what it was.

"Vinnie? Vinnie! Wakey wakey! You're dinner's here."

Yuffie was poking him with her kunai. It was the same kunai she'd used to hack half his hair off. "Don't." he mumbled, then closed his eyes again.

"Vinnie! I went through all that trouble to get you a nice hot meal and you don't want it!"

He could hear the crocodile tears in her voice. Gods…

Sitting up, he looked around blearily. Yuffie was sitting next to him with a half eaten meal of mashed potatoes and peas in front of her. There was a similar meal in front of him, although not half eaten. Fred was over with the group of the truckers, laughing and probably drinking too much, judging from the half empty tankard in his hand and the unfocused quality to his eyes.

"Eat!" Yuffie commanded him. There was a whiney tone in her voice.

"Alright…" He had to admit, the food did look good.

oOo

The next morning Fred woke Yuffie up before dawn. "I'm heading off now. Do you want to come with to Lockwood Inn, or are you gonna walk?"

"Lockwood?"

"Yeah. It's about three hours that-a-way." He waved in a general Easterly direction. "It's where the car that I'm supposed to be towing is. We're the only towing company on this continent that operates outside of cities, I swear. The owners said it was well and truly stuck in about a meter of mud. They're staying in Lockwood Inn until I get there."

"That's the general direction we're going in too, so yes please." She sent him to wake Vincent up and hurriedly got dressed and packed her things into her backpack.

Within ten minutes all three were downstairs eating a hasty breakfast of eggs, toast and bacon. When they'd finished they paid for their meals and accommodation and ran through the still falling rain to Fred's truck.

They'd been driving for almost half an hour when Fred asked "Say, Vin…" Yuffie had introduced him as Vin, and Vin he remained… "Why do you still have that huge red rag wrapped around your arm? Doesn't it get annoying? What's it for, anyway?"

Vincent frowned. He hadn't really thought about what he'd say. "It's an old injury. It's a bit nasty to look at." He said, shrugging.

"Oh, ouch. Sorry to hear that. How'd it happen?"

Silence again while Vincent thought.

"Er- you don't have to tell me. Sorry."

They traveled in peaceful silence for almost ten whole minutes, before Yuffie got impatient and started wriggling. "Are we there yet?"

"No." Fred said.

"Are we there ye-?"

"Yuffie. Don't start."

The ninja in question glared resentfully at Vincent and stuck her tongue out at him. "Spoilsport."

"Yes."

Eventually Yuffie fell asleep.

After a while, Vincent did to, which was unusual. He was probably just bored.

oOo

They were rudely awakened when Fred swore loudly and the truck suddenly swerved sharply off the road before coming to a halt about five meters into the scrubby bush. Vincent only just avoided cracking his head on the window, and Yuffie shrieked.

"Monster!" Warned Fred, before disappearing from the driver's seat. Yuffie and Vincent looked at each other before then followed him out.

"Hey! Get back in the truck! It's not _safe_ out here!" Fred yelled at them angrily, pointing at a huge gray dragon like creature standing in the road, eyeing them up. Fred was holding a huge antique rifle of some sort, which had been under the driver's seat.

"Don't worry, we're fine." As if to prove her point, Yuffie pulled a small shuriken out of one of their many hiding places in her clothes and boots, and flicked it at the monster. It hit with deadly accuracy in the dragon's right eye, and it howled in pain and fury.

"Hey, you're one of them ninjas!" Fred looked a bit confused and slightly apprehensive.

"Yup, sure am." Yuffie didn't waste any more time talking, because the dragon had roared again and charged at them. The young ninja ran to the left, dragging Fred with her, while Vincent leapt to the right.

Pausing, the dragon looked at the three fleeing figures, growling softly wondering which to eat first. It chose Vincent.

The gunman had no difficulty keeping away from it, jumping into a tree which grew beyond the scrub, flipping over the monster's head and running across the road to where Fred and Yuffie were. "You two need to distract it. Keep it occupied. I've got a plan."

Yuffie nodded, and pulled Fred out in the dragon's path again. "Oi, dragon breath!"

"I'm not sure this is a good idea!" Yelled Fred, as the dragon spun on them…

oOo

A/N: Hahaha, you have to wait for the next chapter to find out what happens. Well, I suppose it's not that hard to guess what will happen, but oh well. Yeah, please review. Thanks!

And a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! THANK YOU!


	3. Meeting

A/N: This is the last chapter. I dun like it. And that's why it's the last chapter. I had a good idea for the start of a story, but it kind of lost momentum. So anyway, I apologize most sincerely if you don't like this chapter. It ends on a pretty lousy note. And the whole idea for the big ending I had, it just didn't turn out that well. I'm sorry. So… Enjoy?

One last thing, before I get on with the story: A big Thank You to... furubafreak01, KatoriTsubasa, -find.me.please-, Writingcritter, Yeyana Valentine, LaneJoe, Skrap, Becky, Pishivee, SilverKitsune013, glamrockbloodbath, Crazy Ninja Lady, Beatrisu, Kairi 3SoraNamine 3Roxas, Sora Potter and vorsith for reviewing the last two chapters of this fic. You're all wonderul. I feel like I've kind of let you all down with this last (crappy) chapter, so I'm really sorry. Someday I'll have another go at writing this, and if I can make it better, I'll re-post it.

Becky: No, the title wasn't inspired by anything, really. And I have to say I don't know who Ewan McGregor is. I'm not very up to date with movie stars.

Writingcritter: Absolutely! It was a great suggestion.

_**---Chapter Three---**_

The last thing Fred remembered seeing before everything went blurry was a huge gray, _tooth filled _head looming over himself and Yuffie.

After that there was a loud crack, a roar, a red cloak fluttering to the ground, a flash of gold, a yell, a _thunk_, and everything went black…

…Then Yuffie was shaking him and yelling something. "…Up! You have to wake up! Vincent's not moving! The dragon fell on him! Help me! What if he's dead?"

Through tremendous effort, Fred managed to crack open an eye and groan. "Wha' happened?"

A worried face swam into view, only to be replaced with a bucketful of cold water, which cascaded into his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. He spluttered for a while, but it did wake him up. "What's wrong?" He asked, now that he was capable of thinking straight. "And where did you get that bucket?"

"Vinnie killed the dragon, but something went wrong and it fell on him! He's not waking up! You have to help, I'm not strong enough to lift it off!"

Fred sat up, and was suddenly aware of a sharp, bursting pain in his head. He swore and clamped his hand over the right side of his face, where the pain seemed to be coming from. When he pulled it away again, it was coated in blood. He stared at it.

"Come on, come on, it's just a shallow cut! It looks worse than it is! I'll patch you up if you help! Er. It's from where Vinnie's PHS hit you. It fell out of his pocket."

Fred nodded and staggered to his feet. "Where?"

"This way."

Vincent was lying face down under one of the dragon's huge front legs. A short, well used rifle lay a few meters away where it had fallen. Yuffie was right, he wasn't moving.

Even through the blinding pain in his head, he felt sick with worry. Or maybe that was _because_ of the pain in his head. "I'll try and lift the dragon up, you drag him out when I do."

The dragon was lighter than he expected. It probably had hollow bones like birds, for flying. But it was still very, very heavy. If it wasn't for the many years he'd spent doing all the heavy lifting for his elderly grandfather, he would never have managed to move it.

But slowly, inch by inch, the dead dragon's huge, scaly leg lifted of Vincent's body, and Yuffie darted under to drag him out.

Then he let it drop and sat on the ground for a few moments, panting. "Is he… ok?" he gasped out.

"I don't know. He's breathing, but…"

Fred nodded. "Get him to the truck. We'll have to get him to a town. I have no idea what to do, I'm not a white mage _or_ a doctor."

Between them they managed to lift Vincent to the truck and into the cab. Yuffie ran back to get his cloak. "I should ride in the back." she said when she got back.

"There is no back."

"I'll sit on the crane then. The last thing he needs is to be squished up between us two. Don't worry, I'll be perfectly safe."

"Well… ok. Hold on tight, stay down. If anything goes wrong, bang on the roof. And one more question."

"Yeah?"

"What really happened to his arm?"

Yuffie went bright red. "Oh. That."

"Yeah. I mean, I understand that he'd not want people to know that he's got a metal claw where his left arm used to be, but what happened? How did he get it?"

"Well, the part about being shot was true." Yuffie paused. "I don't know much, he doesn't talk about it very often. But I know that he used to be a Turk, a long time ago. I don't know why, but he argued with one of ShinRa's scientists, and ended up getting shot."

"I… see. A Turk." Fred went round to the driver's door. "Well, Turk or no, he doesn't deserve to die."

"Of course he doesn't!" Yuffie yelled. She was already settling down on the tray, in between a railing and the boom of the crane.

The truck started up with a spluttering roar, and Fred carefully backed it out of the scrub and back onto the road. By the feel of it, one of the tires was going down. Hopefully they'd reach an inn soon.

oOo

Fred almost drove the truck off the road when Vincent woke up suddenly and asked where Yuffie was.

"She wanted to sit on the tray. She's a ninja, I'm not going to argue with her."

"Good answer." He paused. "By the way… what happened?"

"You killed the dragon and it fell on you… I think you're pretty badly injured, not sure though."

Vincent grimaced. "Five broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist, and many various scrapes, cuts and bruises."

Fred almost drove off the road again. "You know all that? How? And if you're that badly hurt, how can you just sit there? Most people would be screaming!"

"I've learnt to tell, and to ignore pain. Sort of comes with the job… Ow."

"Don't shrug like that. It won't do you any good."

"Watch the road." The man fell silent and shut his eyes again. Fred went back to giving the road his undivided attention.

oOo

Finally they reached a town. Yuffie could almost hear Cid saying 'What a bloody dump'. "What is this place?" she asked.

"Lockwood. It's a bloody dump, isn't it?" Fred pulled a face at the tiny town.

Yuffie looked at him strangely.

"…What?"

"Nothing, nothing. Where's the healer's?"

"This way. We'll drive right up. Get back on the tray."

Yuffie nodded and scrambled up while Fred climbed back into the cab. It was only a few seconds drive, but they didn't want to have to carry Vincent or make him walk very far. "He looks heavy," Fred had said. Vincent had scowled at him, but not said anything. Apparently ignoring pain took a lot of concentration.

As soon as Fred had stopped Yuffie jumped off the tray and hammered on the door. A faded sign on it announced that the healer and white mage Martha Farthy lived and worked in this building.

The door opened a crack and a face peered through. "What is it?" the voice was old and cracked.

"Our friend's hurt! Come on! Open up!"

The voice grumbled something about manners these days, but she opened the door. She was a white haired, stooped old woman, with a friendly looking face, complete with crow's feet around her brown eyes and smile lines around her mouth. "Where is your friend?"

"In the truck. We didn't want to move him too much…"

"Good, good. I'll be right out." She bustled back inside and came back carrying a cloth and wood contraption. "It's a stretcher. I'm too old for this kind of thing, but you two could get him on it. I'll walk you through it."

So, carefully, with Martha squawking her instructions hurriedly at them, they levered Vincent onto the canvas stretcher. Vincent must have sunk back into oblivion, because he didn't move or make any noise at all.

Eventually they got him inside, and they only crashed into the doorframe once. Martha told them to put Vincent, stretcher and all, on the kitchen table. Then she went off somewhere to get her healer's kit.

When she got back she was carrying what must have been half the medical supplies on this side of Midgar. "I don't know what's wrong with him, see." She explained. "I'll just check though." She put her hand on his forehead, and a white glow surrounded him.

"Oh dear. He's quite badly off, isn't he? What happened to him?"

"A dragon fell on him… it was dead though."

The old lady's eyebrows shot up. "Well well well. It must have been rather a large dragon, too. He's got…"

"Five broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist, and many various scrapes, cuts and bruises?" Fred asked.

"Yes." said Martha.

"How did you know that?" Yuffie demanded.

"He told me."

"What?" Martha squawked, "How could he tell you that? He's not even conscious!"

"He woke up for a while."

Martha looked at Vincent, who was definitely out for the count. "My my, what a strange young man…"

Yuffie pulled a face at the back of her head and muttered, "You have no idea…"

"What now?" Fred asked, "Only, I need to change one of the tires on my truck before we can leave again…"

The healer flapped her hand at him. "Go, go. I'll be able to work better without you two in my way anyway. Go on, out."

Fred nodded. "Come on Yuffie. You can help."

Yuffie balked. "What? Why me? I don't even _like_ cars!"

"Just come…"

oOo

Yuffie tried to scrape some of the mud and grease off her hands with a rag, but only succeeded in smearing it up her arms. She let out a yell of frustration and threw it at Fred, who yelped is it hit him in the face.

"Yuffie! There's some swarfega in the truck! Don't blame me for _your_ mistakes!"

"But you could have told me that I was holding the can upside down! What's swarfega?"

"Hand cleaner." Fred muttered, turning back to the tire and picking up another wheel nut.

Yuffie didn't bother trying to help out any more. Instead she climbed into the cab and rummaged around until she found the bottle Fred had been talking about.

It was pale red and gooey, and it stung where it got into a cut on the back of her hand, but the dirt and grease melted off her hands. She wondered what it was made of. Probably some closely guarded family secret. She decided to ask Fred later.

oOo

It was over two hours before Vincent emerged from the healer's house. He moved gingerly, but apart from that he seemed ok.

"Vinnie!" Yuffie called, "We've got the truck all fixed up!"

Vincent looked at Yuffie, covered head to toe in mud, and Fred, not looking much better. "Are you sure you didn't break it instead?"

"Yes! Er, but we did end up having to chase the spare tire along the road a bit. That was Fred's fault."

"It was not!"

Vincent sighed.

oOo

Lockwood Inn was two kilometers past Lockwood itself. It was a tiny, rickety establishment, with a weather beaten sign nailed to the top of a pole that stuck out of the ground at about forty five degrees.

"This is it. This is where I'm supposed to be meeting the people whose car I'm towing." Fred said.

"You can look for them, I'm getting a room and a shower!" Yuffie said, shoving Vincent to make him get out the cab faster.

"Ow, ow, watch it!"

"Sorry Vinnie."

Fred climbed out the driver's side door and locked the truck, then followed the two inside. They were already sitting down at a table in the bar to wait for their meals to show up. He looked around, but there wasn't anyone else in the bar, so he decided to get some food as well.

The bartender looked up. "Hey, are you the tow truck guy?"

"Yeah."

"They left to get some supplies in Lockwood, they'll be back in a half hour or so, they said."

"Oh, thanks."

Yuffie had almost finished eating by the time Fred's meal was ready. She sat there, chewing noisily on the last of her chips. "So, Fred," She said after she'd swallowed, "How exactly did you get landed with a name like Fred?"

Fred scowled at her. "It's short for Frederic. Don't laugh."

She laughed anyway. "Boy, I can see why you wanted to shorten it!"

"The name Frederic has similar origins to the name Vincent. They were both popular about two hundred years ago in Midgar and the surrounding areas." Vincent said.

"The only difference, is that the name Vincent is still cool." Fred grumbled.

"Where are those people you came all the way out here to tow?" Yuffie asked.

"The guy at the bar said they'd be here soon," Fred told her, just as the door opened, letting a sudden gust of wind and a group of people in. Yuffie and Vincent were sitting with their backs to it, so he had a nice clear view, right between them. "Speak of the devil, here they are."

Yuffie looked round. "Cloud!" she shrieked, jumping up. Vincent looked around too, surprised.

"You know these guys?" Fred asked.

"Yes! Cloud, over here!"

The rest of AVALANCHE noticed Yuffie, who was waving enthusiastically at them. "Yuffie! What are you doing here?" demanded Tifa.

"We hitchhiked here! Cloud got stuck did he?" Yuffie giggled evilly, "It serves him right for leaving us behind!"

"Who are these guys? Where's Vinnie the Vampire?" asked Cid.

"Hah, very funny." Vincent said.

"No, seriously…" Cid looked closer at him. "Hey, what happened to _you_? Your hair! Vincent got a haircut! _Why_, though?"

Vincent hesitated for a few moments, then said, "It's a very long story."

"And I'll tell you the whole thing later!" Yuffie added.

oOo

When introductions were finally over, and Yuffie and Fred had finished telling the others what had happened, Fred and Cid went to get the buggy out of the mud. "Frig, what happened here?" Fred demanded, looking at it. "Did it sink after you abandoned ship or something?"

Cid shuffled his feet, as much as he could in the ankle deep mud. "That's _exactly_ what happened."

"This is gonna take a while."

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that." Cid grumbled. "We'd better get a move on then."

oOo


End file.
